Bible in 90 Days

A Good Land to Be Possessed

8 “Obey faithfully all the laws that I have given you today, so that you may live, increase in number, and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past forty years, sending hardships to test you, so that he might know what you intended to do and whether you would obey his commands. ^3 (A)He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that you must not depend on bread alone to sustain you, but on everything that the Lord says. ⁴ During these forty years your clothes have not worn out, nor have your feet swollen up. ^5 (B)Remember that the Lord your God corrects and punishes you just as parents discipline their children. ⁶ So then, do as the Lord has commanded you: live according to his laws and obey him. ⁷ The Lord your God is bringing you into a fertile land—a land that has rivers and springs, and underground streams gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land that produces wheat and barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and honey. ⁹ There you will never go hungry or ever be in need. Its rocks have iron in them, and from its hills you can mine copper. ¹⁰ You will have all you want to eat, and you will give thanks to the Lord your God for the fertile land that he has given you.

Warnings against Forgetting the Lord

^11 (C)“Make certain that you do not forget the Lord your God; do not fail to obey any of his laws that I am giving you today. ¹² When you have all you want to eat and have built good houses to live in ¹³ and when your cattle and sheep, your silver and gold, and all your other possessions have increased, ¹⁴ be sure that you do not become proud and forget the Lord your God who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹⁵ He led you through that vast and terrifying desert where there were poisonous snakes and scorpions. In that dry and waterless land he made water flow out of solid rock for you. ¹⁶ In the desert he gave you manna to eat, food that your ancestors had never eaten. He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end he could bless you with good things. ¹⁷ So then, you must never think that you have made yourselves wealthy by your own power and strength. ¹⁸ Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to become rich. He does this because he is still faithful today to the covenant that he made with your ancestors. ¹⁹ Never forget the Lord your God or turn to other gods to worship and serve them. If you do, then I warn you today that you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁰ If you do not obey the Lord, then you will be destroyed just like those nations that he is going to destroy as you advance.

The People's Disobedience

9 “Listen, people of Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River and occupy the land belonging to nations greater and more powerful than you. Their cities are large, with walls that reach the sky. ² The people themselves are tall and strong; they are giants, and you have heard it said that no one can stand against them. ³ But now you will see for yourselves that the Lord your God will go ahead of you like a raging fire. He will defeat them as you advance, so that you will drive them out and destroy them quickly, as he promised.

⁴ “After the Lord your God has driven them out for you, do not say to yourselves that he brought you in to possess this land because you deserved it. No, the Lord is going to drive these people out for you because they are wicked. ⁵ It is not because you are good and do what is right that the Lord is letting you take their land. He will drive them out because they are wicked and because he intends to keep the promise that he made to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ You can be sure that the Lord is not giving you this fertile land because you deserve it. No, you are a stubborn people.

⁷ “Never forget how you made the Lord your God angry in the desert. From the day that you left Egypt until the day you arrived here, you have rebelled against him. ⁸ Even at Mount Sinai you made the Lord angry—angry enough to destroy you. ^9 (D)I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets on which was written the covenant that the Lord had made with you. I stayed there forty days and nights and did not eat or drink anything. ¹⁰ Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets on which he had written with his own hand what he had said to you from the fire on the day that you were gathered there at the mountain. ¹¹ Yes, after those forty days and nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets on which he had written the covenant.

¹² “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go down the mountain at once, because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have become corrupt and have done evil. They have already turned away from what I commanded them to do, and they have made an idol for themselves.’

¹³ “The Lord also said to me, ‘I know how stubborn these people are. ¹⁴ Don't try to stop me. I intend to destroy them so that no one will remember them any longer. Then I will make you the father of a nation larger and more powerful than they are.’

¹⁵ “So I turned and went down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets on which the covenant was written. Flames of fire were coming from the mountain. ¹⁶ I saw that you had already disobeyed the command that the Lord your God had given you, and that you had sinned against him by making yourselves a metal idol in the form of a bull-calf. ¹⁷ So there in front of you I threw the stone tablets down and broke them to pieces. ¹⁸ Then once again I lay face downward in the Lord's presence for forty days and nights and did not eat or drink anything. I did this because you had sinned against the Lord and had made him angry. ^19 (E)I was afraid of the Lord's fierce anger, because he was furious enough to destroy you; but once again the Lord listened to me. ²⁰ The Lord was also angry enough with Aaron to kill him, so I prayed for Aaron at the same time. ²¹ I took that sinful thing that you had made—that metal bull-calf—and threw it into the fire. Then I broke it in pieces, ground it to dust, and threw the dust into the stream that flowed down the mountain.

^22 (F)“You also made the Lord your God angry when you were at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah. ^23 (G)And when he sent you from Kadesh Barnea with orders to go and take possession of the land that he was giving you, you rebelled against him; you did not trust him or obey him. ²⁴ Ever since I have known you, you have rebelled against the Lord.

²⁵ “So I lay face downward in the Lord's presence those forty days and nights, because I knew that he was determined to destroy you. ²⁶ And I prayed, ‘Sovereign Lord, don't destroy your own people, the people you rescued and brought out of Egypt by your great strength and power. ²⁷ Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and do not pay any attention to the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of this people. ²⁸ Otherwise, the Egyptians will say that you were unable to take your people into the land that you had promised them. They will say that you took your people out into the desert to kill them, because you hated them. ²⁹ After all, these are the people whom you chose to be your own and whom you brought out of Egypt by your great power and might.’

Moses Receives the Commandments Again^(H)

10 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and make a wooden Box to put them in. Come up to me on the mountain, ² and I will write on those tablets what I wrote on the tablets that you broke, and then you are to put them in the Box.’

³ “So I made a Box of acacia wood and cut two stone tablets like the first ones and took them up the mountain. ⁴ Then the Lord wrote on those tablets the same words that he had written the first time, the Ten Commandments that he gave you when he spoke from the fire on the day you were gathered at the mountain. The Lord gave me the tablets, ⁵ and I turned and went down the mountain. Then, just as the Lord had commanded, I put them in the Box that I had made—and they have been there ever since.”

(^6 (I)The Israelites set out from the wells that belonged to the people of Jaakan, and went to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. ⁷ From there they went to Gudgodah and then on to Jotbathah, a well-watered place. ^8 (J)At that time the Lord appointed the men of the tribe of Levi to be in charge of the Covenant Box, to serve him as priests, and to pronounce blessings in his name. And these are still their duties. ⁹ That is why the tribe of Levi received no land as the other tribes did; what they received was the privilege of being the Lord's priests, as the Lord your God promised.)

^10 (K)“I stayed on the mountain forty days and nights, as I did the first time. The Lord listened to me once more and agreed not to destroy you. ¹¹ Then he told me to go and lead you, so that you could take possession of the land that he had promised to give to your ancestors.

What God Demands

¹² “Now, people of Israel, listen to what the Lord your God demands of you: Worship the Lord and do all that he commands. Love him, serve him with all your heart, ¹³ and obey all his laws. I am giving them to you today for your benefit. ¹⁴ To the Lord belong even the highest heavens; the earth is his also, and everything on it. ¹⁵ But the Lord's love for your ancestors was so strong that he chose you instead of any other people, and you are still his chosen people. ¹⁶ So then, from now on be obedient to the Lord and stop being stubborn. ^17 (L)The Lord your God is supreme over all gods and over all powers. He is great and mighty, and he is to be obeyed. He does not show partiality, and he does not accept bribes. ^18 (M)He makes sure that orphans and widows are treated fairly; he loves the foreigners who live with our people, and gives them food and clothes. ¹⁹ So then, show love for those foreigners, because you were once foreigners in Egypt. ²⁰ Have reverence for the Lord your God and worship only him. Be faithful to him and make your promises in his name alone. ²¹ Praise him—he is your God, and you have seen with your own eyes the great and astounding things that he has done for you. ^22 (N)When your ancestors went to Egypt, there were only seventy of them. But now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

The Lord's Greatness

11 “Love the Lord your God and always obey all his laws. ² Remember today what you have learned about the Lord through your experiences with him. It was you, not your children, who had these experiences. You saw the Lord's greatness, his power, his might, ^3 (O)and his miracles. You saw what he did to the king of Egypt and to his entire country. ^4 (P)You saw how the Lord completely wiped out the Egyptian army, along with their horses and chariots, by drowning them in the Red Sea^[a] when they were pursuing you. ⁵ You know what the Lord did for you in the desert before you arrived here. ^6 (Q)You recall what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab of the tribe of Reuben. In the sight of everyone the earth opened up and swallowed them, along with their families, their tents, and all their servants and animals. ⁷ Yes, you are the ones who have seen all these great things that the Lord has done.

The Blessings of the Promised Land

⁸ “Obey everything that I have commanded you today. Then you will be able to cross the river and occupy the land that you are about to enter. ⁹ And you will live a long time in the rich and fertile land that the Lord promised to give your ancestors and their descendants. ¹⁰ The land that you are about to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, where you lived before. There, when you planted grain, you had to work hard to irrigate the fields; ¹¹ but the land that you are about to enter is a land of mountains and valleys, a land watered by rain. ¹² The Lord your God takes care of this land and watches over it throughout the year.

^13 (R)“So then, obey the commands that I have given you today; love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart. ¹⁴ If you do, he will send rain on your land when it is needed, in the autumn and in the spring, so that there will be grain, wine, and olive oil for you, ¹⁵ and grass for your livestock. You will have all the food you want. ¹⁶ Do not let yourselves be led away from the Lord to worship and serve other gods. ¹⁷ If you do, the Lord will become angry with you. He will hold back the rain, and your ground will become too dry for crops to grow. Then you will soon die there, even though it is a good land that he is giving you.

^18 (S)“Remember these commands and cherish them. Tie them on your arms and wear them on your foreheads as a reminder. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you are working. ²⁰ Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. ²¹ Then you and your children will live a long time in the land that the Lord your God promised to give to your ancestors. You will live there as long as there is a sky above the earth.

²² “Obey faithfully everything that I have commanded you: Love the Lord your God, do everything he commands, and be faithful to him. ²³ Then he will drive out all those nations as you advance, and you will occupy the land belonging to nations greater and more powerful than you. ^24 (T)All the ground that you march over will be yours. Your territory will extend from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. ²⁵ Wherever you go in that land, the Lord your God will make the people fear you, as he has promised, and no one will be able to stop you.

²⁶ “Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse— ²⁷ a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; ²⁸ but a curse, if you disobey these commands and turn away to worship other gods that you have never worshiped before. ^29 (U)When the Lord brings you into the land that you are going to occupy, you are to proclaim the blessing from Mount Gerizim and the curse from Mount Ebal. (³⁰ These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the territory of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley. They are toward the west, not far from the sacred trees of Moreh near the town of Gilgal.) ³¹ You are about to cross the Jordan River and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it and settle there, ³² be sure to obey all the laws that I am giving you today.

The One Place for Worship

12 “Here are the laws that you are to obey as long as you live in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Listen to them! ² In the land that you are taking, destroy all the places where the people worship their gods on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees. ^3 (V)Tear down their altars and smash their sacred stone pillars to pieces. Burn their symbols of the goddess Asherah and chop down their idols, so that they will never again be worshiped at those places.

⁴ “Do not worship the Lord your God in the way that these people worship their gods. ⁵ Out of the territory of all your tribes the Lord will choose the one place where the people are to come into his presence and worship him. ⁶ There you are to offer your sacrifices that are to be burned and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, the gifts that you promise to the Lord, your freewill offerings, and the first-born of your cattle and sheep. ⁷ There, in the presence of the Lord your God, who has blessed you, you and your families will eat and enjoy the good things that you have worked for.

⁸ “When that time comes, you must not do as you have been doing. Until now you have all been worshiping as you please, ⁹ because you have not yet entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you, where you can live in peace. ¹⁰ When you cross the Jordan River, the Lord will let you occupy the land and live there. He will keep you safe from all your enemies, and you will live in peace. ¹¹ The Lord will choose a single place where he is to be worshiped, and there you must bring to him everything that I have commanded: your sacrifices that are to be burned and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, and those special gifts that you have promised to the Lord. ¹² Be joyful there in his presence, together with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns; remember that the Levites will have no land of their own. ¹³ You are not to offer your sacrifices wherever you choose; ¹⁴ you must offer them only in the one place that the Lord will choose in the territory of one of your tribes. Only there are you to offer your sacrifices that are to be burned and do all the other things that I have commanded you.

¹⁵ “But you are free to kill and eat your animals wherever you live. You may eat as many as the Lord gives you. All of you, whether ritually clean or unclean, may eat them, just as you would eat the meat of deer or antelope. ^16 (W)But you must not eat their blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷ Nothing that you offer to the Lord is to be eaten in the places where you live: neither the tithes of your grain, your wine, or your olive oil, nor the first-born of your cattle and sheep, the gifts that you promise to the Lord, your freewill offerings, or any other offerings. ¹⁸ You and your children, together with your servants and the Levites who live in your towns, are to eat these offerings only in the presence of the Lord your God, in the one place of worship chosen by the Lord your God. And you are to be happy there over everything that you have done. ¹⁹ Be sure, also, not to neglect the Levites, as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised, you may eat meat whenever you want to. ²¹ If the one place of worship is too far away, then, whenever you wish, you may kill any of the cattle or sheep that the Lord has given you, and you may eat the meat at home, as I have told you. ²² Anyone, ritually clean or unclean, may eat that meat, just as he would eat the meat of deer or antelope. ^23 (X)Only do not eat meat with blood still in it, for the life is in the blood, and you must not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ Do not use the blood for food; instead, pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ If you obey this command, the Lord will be pleased, and all will go well for you and your descendants. ²⁶ Take to the one place of worship your offerings and the gifts that you have promised the Lord. ²⁷ Offer there the sacrifices which are to be completely burned on the Lord's altar. Also offer those sacrifices in which you eat the meat and pour the blood out on the altar. ²⁸ Obey faithfully everything that I have commanded you, and all will go well for you and your descendants forever, because you will be doing what is right and what pleases the Lord your God.

Warning against Idolatry

²⁹ “The Lord your God will destroy the nations as you invade their land, and you will occupy it and settle there. ³⁰ After the Lord destroys those nations, make sure that you don't follow their religious practices, because that would be fatal. Don't try to find out how they worship their gods, so that you can worship in the same way. ³¹ Do not worship the Lord your God in the way they worship their gods, for in the worship of their gods they do all the disgusting things that the Lord hates. They even sacrifice their children in the fires on their altars.

^32 (Y)“Do everything that I have commanded you; do not add anything to it or take anything from it.

13 “Prophets or interpreters of dreams may promise a miracle or a wonder, ² in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshiped before. Even if what they promise comes true, ³ do not pay any attention to them. The Lord your God is using them to test you, to see if you love the Lord with all your heart. ⁴ Follow the Lord and honor him; obey him and keep his commands; worship him and be faithful to him. ⁵ But put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets that tell you to rebel against the Lord, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that the Lord has commanded you to live. They must be put to death, in order to rid yourselves of this evil.

⁶ “Even your brother or your son or your daughter or the wife you love or your closest friend may secretly encourage you to worship other gods, gods that you and your ancestors have never worshiped. ⁷ Some of them may encourage you to worship the gods of the people who live near you or the gods of those who live far away. ⁸ But do not let any of them persuade you; do not even listen to them. Show them no mercy or pity, and do not protect them. ⁹ Kill them! Be the first to stone them, and then let everyone else stone them too. ¹⁰ Stone them to death! They tried to lead you away from the Lord your God, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹¹ Then all the people of Israel will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing.

¹² “When you are living in the towns that the Lord your God gives you, you may hear ¹³ that some worthless people of your nation have misled the people of their town to worship gods that you have never worshiped before. ¹⁴ If you hear such a rumor, investigate it thoroughly; and if it is true that this evil thing did happen, ¹⁵ then kill all the people in that town and all their livestock too. Destroy that town completely. ¹⁶ Bring together all the possessions of the people who live there and pile them up in the town square. Then burn the town and everything in it as an offering to the Lord your God. It must be left in ruins forever and never again be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Do not keep for yourselves anything that was condemned to destruction, and then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger and show you mercy. He will be merciful to you and make you a numerous people, as he promised your ancestors, ¹⁸ if you obey all his commands that I have given you today, and do what he requires.

A Forbidden Mourning Practice

14 ^(Z)“You are the people of the Lord your God. So when you mourn for the dead, don't gash yourselves or shave the front of your head, as other people do. ^2 (AA)You belong to the Lord your God; he has chosen you to be his own people from among all the peoples who live on earth.

Clean and Unclean Animals^(AB)

³ “Do not eat anything that the Lord has declared unclean. ⁴ You may eat these animals: cattle, sheep, goats, ⁵ deer, wild sheep, wild goats, or antelopes— ⁶ any animals that have divided hoofs and that also chew the cud. ⁷ But no animals may be eaten unless they have divided hoofs and also chew the cud. You may not eat camels, rabbits, or rock badgers. They must be considered unclean; they chew the cud but do not have divided hoofs. ⁸ Do not eat pigs. They must be considered unclean; they have divided hoofs but do not chew the cud. Do not eat any of these animals or even touch their dead bodies.

⁹ “You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales, ¹⁰ but anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales may not be eaten; it must be considered unclean.

¹¹ “You may eat any clean bird. ^12-18 But these are the kinds of birds you are not to eat: eagles, owls, hawks, falcons; buzzards, vultures, crows; ostriches; seagulls, storks, herons, pelicans, cormorants;^[b] hoopoes; and bats.

¹⁹ “All winged insects are unclean; do not eat them. ²⁰ You may eat any clean insect.

^21 (AC)“Do not eat any animal that dies a natural death. You may let the foreigners who live among you eat it, or you may sell it to other foreigners. But you belong to the Lord your God; you are his people.

“Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.

The Law of the Tithe

^22 (AD)“Set aside a tithe—a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. ²³ Then go to the one place where the Lord your God has chosen to be worshiped; and there in his presence eat the tithes of your grain, wine, and olive oil, and the first-born of your cattle and sheep. Do this so that you may learn to honor the Lord your God always. ²⁴ If the place of worship is too far from your home for you to carry there the tithe of the produce that the Lord has blessed you with, then do this: ²⁵ Sell your produce and take the money with you to the one place of worship. ²⁶ Spend it on whatever you want—beef, lamb, wine, beer—and there, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families are to eat and enjoy yourselves.

²⁷ “Do not neglect the Levites who live in your towns; they have no property of their own. ²⁸ At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns. ²⁹ This food is for the Levites, since they own no property, and for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. They are to come and get all they need. Do this, and the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

The Seventh Year^(AE)

15 “At the end of every seventh year you are to cancel the debts of those who owe you money. ² This is how it is to be done. Each of you who has lent money to any Israelite is to cancel the debt; you must not try to collect the money; the Lord himself has declared the debt canceled. ³ You may collect what a foreigner owes you, but you must not collect what any of your own people owe you.

⁴ “The Lord your God will bless you in the land that he is giving you. Not one of your people will be poor ⁵ if you obey him and carefully observe everything that I command you today. ⁶ The Lord will bless you, as he has promised. You will lend money to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any; you will have control over many nations, but no nation will have control over you.

^7 (AF)“If in any of the towns in the land that the Lord your God is giving you there are Israelites in need, then do not be selfish and refuse to help them. ⁸ Instead, be generous and lend them as much as they need. ⁹ Do not refuse to lend them something, just because the year when debts are canceled is near. Do not let such an evil thought enter your mind. If you refuse to make the loan, they will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty. ¹⁰ Give to them freely and unselfishly, and the Lord will bless you in everything you do. ^11 (AG)There will always be some Israelites who are poor and in need, and so I command you to be generous to them.

The Treatment of Slaves^(AH)

^12 (AI)“If any Israelites, male or female, sell themselves^[c] to you as slaves, you are to release them after they have served you for six years. When the seventh year comes, you must let them go free. ¹³ When you set them free, do not send them away empty-handed. ¹⁴ Give to them generously from what the Lord has blessed you with—sheep, grain, and wine. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God set you free; that is why I am now giving you this command.

¹⁶ “But your slave may not want to leave; he may love you and your family and be content to stay. ¹⁷ Then take him to the door of your house and there pierce his ear; he will then be your slave for life. Treat your female slave in the same way. ¹⁸ Do not be resentful when you set slaves free; after all, they have served you for six years at half the cost of hired servants.^[d] Do this, and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

The First-Born Cattle and Sheep

^19 (AJ)“Set aside for the Lord your God all the first-born males of your cattle and sheep; don't use any of these cattle for work and don't shear any of these sheep. ²⁰ Each year you and your family are to eat them in the Lord's presence at the one place of worship. ²¹ But if there is anything wrong with the animals, if they are crippled or blind or have any other serious defect, you must not sacrifice them to the Lord your God. ²² You may eat such animals at home. All of you, whether ritually clean or unclean, may eat them, just as you eat deer or antelope. ^23 (AK)But do not use their blood for food; instead, you must pour it out on the ground like water.

The Passover^(AL)

16 ^(AM)“Honor the Lord your God by celebrating Passover in the month of Abib; it was on a night in that month that he rescued you from Egypt. ² Go to the one place of worship and slaughter there one of your sheep or cattle for the Passover meal to honor the Lord your God. ³ When you eat this meal, do not eat bread prepared with yeast. For seven days you are to eat bread prepared without yeast, as you did when you had to leave Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread—it will be called the bread of suffering—so that as long as you live you will remember the day you came out of Egypt, that place of suffering. ⁴ For seven days no one in your land is to have any yeast in the house; and the meat of the animal killed on the evening of the first day must be eaten that same night.

^5-6 “Slaughter the Passover animals at the one place of worship—and nowhere else in the land that the Lord your God will give you. Do it at sunset, the time of day when you left Egypt. ⁷ Boil the meat and eat it at the one place of worship; and the next morning return home. ⁸ For the next six days you are to eat bread prepared without yeast, and on the seventh day assemble to worship the Lord your God, and do no work on that day.

The Harvest Festival^(AN)

^9 (AO)“Count seven weeks from the time that you begin to harvest the grain, ¹⁰ and then celebrate the Harvest Festival, to honor the Lord your God, by bringing him a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing he has given you. ¹¹ Be joyful in the Lord's presence, together with your children, your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. Do this at the one place of worship. ¹² Be sure that you obey these commands; do not forget that you were slaves in Egypt.

The Festival of Shelters^(AP)

^13 (AQ)“After you have threshed all your grain and pressed all your grapes, celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days. ¹⁴ Enjoy it with your children, your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. ¹⁵ Honor the Lord your God by celebrating this festival for seven days at the one place of worship. Be joyful, because the Lord has blessed your harvest and your work.

¹⁶ “All the men of your nation are to come to worship the Lord three times a year at the one place of worship: at Passover, Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Shelters. Each man is to bring a gift ¹⁷ as he is able, in proportion to the blessings that the Lord your God has given him.

The Administration of Justice

¹⁸ “Appoint judges and other officials in every town that the Lord your God gives you. These men are to judge the people impartially. ^19 (AR)They are not to be unjust or show partiality in their judgments; and they are not to accept bribes, for gifts blind the eyes even of wise and honest men, and cause them to give wrong decisions. ²⁰ Always be fair and just, so that you will occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you and so that you will continue to live there.

^21 (AS)“When you make an altar for the Lord your God, do not put beside it a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah. ^22 (AT)And do not set up any stone pillar for idol worship; the Lord hates them.

17 “Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God cattle or sheep that have any defects; the Lord hates this.

² “Suppose you hear that in one of your towns some men or women have sinned against the Lord and broken his covenant ^3 (AU)by worshiping and serving other gods or the sun or the moon or the stars, contrary to the Lord's command. ⁴ If you hear such a report, then investigate it thoroughly. If it is true that this evil thing has happened in Israel, ⁵ then take them outside the town and stone them to death. ^6 (AV)However, they may be put to death only if two or more witnesses testify against them; they are not to be put to death if there is only one witness. ^7 (AW)The witnesses are to throw the first stones, and then the rest of the people are to stone them; in this way you will get rid of this evil.

⁸ “It may be that some cases will be too difficult for the local judges to decide, such as certain cases of property rights or of bodily injury or those cases that involve a distinction between murder and manslaughter. When this happens, go to the one place of worship chosen by the Lord your God, ⁹ and present your case to the levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time, and let them decide the case. ¹⁰ They will give their decision, and you are to do exactly as they tell you. ¹¹ Accept their verdict and follow their instructions in every detail. ¹² Anyone who dares to disobey either the judge or the priest on duty is to be put to death; in this way you will remove this evil from Israel. ¹³ Then everyone will hear of it and be afraid, and no one else will dare to act in such a way.

Instructions concerning a King

^14 (AX)“After you have taken possession of the land that the Lord your God is going to give you and have settled there, then you will decide you need a king like all the nations around you. ¹⁵ Be sure that the man you choose to be king is the one whom the Lord has chosen. He must be one of your own people; do not make a foreigner your king. ^16 (AY)The king is not to have a large number of horses for his army, and he is not to send people to Egypt to buy horses,^[e] because the Lord has said that his people are never to return there. ^17 (AZ)The king is not to have many wives, because this would make him turn away from the Lord; and he is not to make himself rich with silver and gold. ¹⁸ When he becomes king, he is to have a copy of the book of God's laws and teachings made from the original copy kept by the levitical priests. ¹⁹ He is to keep this book near him and read from it all his life, so that he will learn to honor the Lord and to obey faithfully everything that is commanded in it. ²⁰ This will keep him from thinking that he is better than other Israelites and from disobeying the Lord's commands in any way. Then he will reign for many years, and his descendants will rule Israel for many generations.

The Share of the Priests

18 “The priestly tribe of Levi is not to receive any share of land in Israel; instead, they are to live on the offerings and other sacrifices given to the Lord. ^2 (BA)They are to own no land, as the other tribes do; their share is the privilege of being the Lord's priests, as the Lord has promised.

³ “Whenever cattle or sheep are sacrificed, the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jaw, and the stomach. ⁴ They are to receive the first share of the grain, wine, olive oil, and wool. ⁵ The Lord chose from all your tribes the tribe of Levi to serve him as priests forever.

⁶ “Any Levite who wants to may come from any town in Israel to the one place of worship ⁷ and may serve there as a priest of the Lord his God, like the other Levites who are serving there. ⁸ He is to receive the same amount of food as the other priests, and he may keep whatever his family sends him.^[f]

Warning against Pagan Practices

⁹ “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, don't follow the disgusting practices of the nations that are there. ^10 (BB)Don't sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars; and don't let your people practice divination or look for omens or use spells ^11 (BC)or charms, and don't let them consult the spirits of the dead. ¹² The Lord your God hates people who do these disgusting things, and that is why he is driving those nations out of the land as you advance. ^13 (BD)Be completely faithful to the Lord.”

The Promise to Send a Prophet

¹⁴ Then Moses said, “In the land you are about to occupy, people follow the advice of those who practice divination and look for omens, but the Lord your God does not allow you to do this. ^15 (BE)Instead, he will send you a prophet like me from among your own people, and you are to obey him.^[g]

¹⁶ “On the day that you were gathered at Mount Sinai, you begged not to hear the Lord speak again or to see his fiery presence any more, because you were afraid you would die. ¹⁷ So the Lord said to me, ‘They have made a wise request. ¹⁸ I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he^[h] will tell the people everything I command. ^19 (BF)He will speak in my name, and I^[i] will punish anyone who refuses to obey him. ²⁰ But if any prophet dares to speak a message in my name when I did not command him to do so, he must die for it, and so must any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods.’

²¹ “You may wonder how you can tell when a prophet's message does not come from the Lord. ²² If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and what he says does not come true, then it is not the Lord's message. That prophet has spoken on his own authority, and you are not to fear him.

The Cities of Refuge^(BG)

19 ^(BH)“After the Lord your God has destroyed the people whose land he is giving you and after you have taken their cities and houses and settled there, ^2-3 divide the territory into three parts, each with a city that can be easily reached. Then any of you that kill will be able to escape to one of them for protection. ⁴ If you accidentally kill someone who is not your enemy, you may escape to any of these cities and be safe. ⁵ For example, if two of you go into the forest together to cut wood and if, as one of you is chopping down a tree, the ax head comes off the handle and kills the other, you can run to one of those three cities and be safe. ⁶ If there were only one city, the distance to it might be too great, and the relative who is responsible for taking revenge for the killing might catch you and angrily kill an innocent person. After all, it was by accident that you killed someone who was not your enemy. ⁷ This is why I order you to set aside three cities.

⁸ “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he told your ancestors he would, and gives you all the land he has promised, ⁹ then you are to select three more cities. (He will give you this land if you do everything that I command you today and if you love the Lord your God and live according to his teachings.) ¹⁰ Do this, so that innocent people will not die and so that you will not be guilty of putting them to death in the land that the Lord is giving you.

¹¹ “But suppose you deliberately murder your enemy in cold blood and then escape to one of those cities for protection. ¹² In that case, the leaders of your own town are to send for you and hand you over to the relative responsible for taking revenge for the murder, so that you may be put to death. ¹³ No mercy will be shown to you. Israel must rid itself of murderers, so that all will go well.

Ancient Property Lines

^14 (BI)“Do not move your neighbor's property line, established long ago in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Concerning Witnesses

^15 (BJ)“One witness is not enough to convict someone of a crime; at least two witnesses are necessary to prove that someone is guilty. ¹⁶ If any of you try to harm another by false accusations, ¹⁷ both of you are to go to the one place of worship and be judged by the priests and judges who are then in office. ¹⁸ The judges will investigate the case thoroughly; and if you have made a false accusation, ¹⁹ you are to receive the punishment the accused would have received. In this way your nation will get rid of this evil. ²⁰ Then everyone else will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing. ^21 (BK)In such cases show no mercy; the punishment is to be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.

Concerning War

20 “When you go out to fight against your enemies and you see chariots and horses and an army that outnumbers yours, do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who rescued you from Egypt, will be with you. ² Before you start fighting, a priest is to come forward and say to the army, ³ ‘Men of Israel, listen! Today you are going into battle. Do not be afraid of your enemies or lose courage or panic. ⁴ The Lord your God is going with you, and he will give you victory.’

⁵ “Then the officers will address the men and say, ‘Is there any man here who has just built a house, but has not yet dedicated it? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, if he is killed in battle, someone else will dedicate his house. ⁶ Is there any man here who has just planted a vineyard, but has not yet had the chance to harvest its grapes? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, if he is killed in battle, someone else will enjoy the wine. ⁷ Is there anyone here who is engaged to be married? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, if he is killed in battle, someone else will marry the woman he is engaged to.’

⁸ “The officers will also say to the men, ‘Is there any man here who has lost his nerve and is afraid? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, he will destroy the morale of the others.’ ⁹ When the officers have finished speaking to the army, leaders are to be chosen for each unit.

¹⁰ “When you go to attack a city, first give its people a chance to surrender. ¹¹ If they open the gates and surrender, they are all to become your slaves and do forced labor for you. ¹² But if the people of that city will not surrender, but choose to fight, surround it with your army. ¹³ Then, when the Lord your God lets you capture the city, kill every man in it. ¹⁴ You may, however, take for yourselves the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city. You may use everything that belongs to your enemies. The Lord has given it to you. ¹⁵ That is how you are to deal with those cities that are far away from the land you will settle in.

¹⁶ “But when you capture cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, kill everyone. ¹⁷ Completely destroy all the people: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord ordered you to do. ¹⁸ Kill them, so that they will not make you sin against the Lord by teaching you to do all the disgusting things that they do in the worship of their gods.

¹⁹ “When you are trying to capture a city, do not cut down its fruit trees, even though the siege lasts a long time. Eat the fruit, but do not destroy the trees; the trees are not your enemies. ²⁰ You may cut down the other trees and use them in the siege mounds until the city is captured.

Concerning Unsolved Murders

21 “Suppose someone is found murdered in a field in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you, and you do not know who killed him. ² Your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the place where the body was found to each of the nearby towns. ³ Then the leaders of the town nearest to where the body was found are to select a young cow that has never been used for work. ⁴ They are to take it down to a spot near a stream that never runs dry and where the ground has never been plowed or planted, and there they are to break its neck. ⁵ The levitical priests are to go there also, because they are to decide every legal case involving violence. The Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name. ⁶ Then all the leaders from the town nearest the place where the murdered person was found are to wash their hands over the cow ⁷ and say, ‘We did not murder this one, and we do not know who did it. ⁸ Lord, forgive your people Israel, whom you rescued from Egypt. Forgive us and do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.’ ⁹ And so, by doing what the Lord requires, you will not be held responsible for the murder.

Concerning Women Prisoners of War

¹⁰ “When the Lord your God gives you victory in battle and you take prisoners, ¹¹ you may see among them a beautiful woman that you like and want to marry. ¹² Take her to your home, where she will shave her head,^[j] cut her fingernails, ¹³ and change her clothes. She is to stay in your home and mourn for her parents for a month; after that, you may marry her. ¹⁴ Later, if you no longer want her, you are to let her go free. Since you forced her to have intercourse with you, you cannot treat her as a slave and sell her.

Concerning the First Son's Inheritance

¹⁵ “Suppose a man has two wives and they both bear him sons, but the first son is not the child of his favorite wife. ¹⁶ When the man decides how he is going to divide his property among his children, he is not to show partiality to the son of his favorite wife by giving him the share that belongs to the first-born son. ¹⁷ He is to give a double share of his possessions to his first son, even though he is not the son of his favorite wife. A man must acknowledge his first son and give him the share he is legally entitled to.

Concerning a Disobedient Son

¹⁸ “Suppose someone has a son who is stubborn and rebellious, a son who will not obey his parents, even though they punish him. ¹⁹ His parents are to take him before the leaders of the town where he lives and make him stand trial. ²⁰ They are to say to them, ‘Our son is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey us; he wastes money and is a drunkard.’ ²¹ Then the men of the city are to stone him to death, and so you will get rid of this evil. Everyone in Israel will hear what has happened and be afraid.

Various Laws

²² “If someone has been put to death for a crime and the body is hung on a post, ^23 (BL)it is not to remain there overnight. It must be buried the same day, because a dead body hanging on a post brings God's curse on the land. Bury the body, so that you will not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

22 ^(BM)“If you see an Israelite's cow or sheep running loose, do not ignore it; take it back. ² But if its owner lives a long way off or if you don't know who owns it, then take it home with you. When its owner comes looking for it, give it to him. ³ Do the same thing if you find a donkey, a piece of clothing, or anything else that an Israelite may have lost.

⁴ “If an Israelite's donkey or cow has fallen down, don't ignore it; help him get the animal to its feet again.

⁵ “Women are not to wear men's clothing, and men are not to wear women's clothing; the Lord your God hates people who do such things.

⁶ “If you happen to find a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground with the mother bird sitting either on the eggs or with her young, you are not to take the mother bird. ⁷ You may take the young birds, but you must let the mother bird go, so that you will live a long and prosperous life.

⁸ “When you build a new house, be sure to put a railing around the edge of the roof. Then you will not be responsible if someone falls off and is killed.

^9 (BN)“Do not plant any crop in the same field with your grapevines; if you do, you are forbidden to use either the grapes or the produce of the other crop.

¹⁰ “Do not hitch an ox and a donkey together for plowing.

¹¹ “Do not wear cloth made by weaving wool and linen together.

^12 (BO)“Sew tassels on the four corners of your clothes.

Laws concerning Sexual Purity

¹³ “Suppose a man marries a young woman and later he decides he doesn't want her. ¹⁴ So he makes up false charges against her, accusing her of not being a virgin when they got married.

¹⁵ “If this happens, the young woman's parents are to take the blood-stained wedding sheet that proves she was a virgin, and they are to show it in court to the town leaders. ¹⁶ Her father will say to them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, and now he doesn't want her. ¹⁷ He has made false charges against her, saying that she was not a virgin when he married her. But here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin; look at the bloodstains on the wedding sheet!’ ¹⁸ Then the town leaders are to take the husband and beat him. ¹⁹ They are also to fine him a hundred pieces of silver and give the money to the young woman's father, because the man has brought disgrace on an Israelite woman. Moreover, she will continue to be his wife, and he can never divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰ “But if the charge is true and there is no proof that she was a virgin, ²¹ then they are to take her out to the entrance of her father's house, where the men of her city are to stone her to death. She has done a shameful thing among our people by having intercourse before she was married, while she was still living in her father's house. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²² “If a man is caught having intercourse with another man's wife, both of them are to be put to death. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²³ “Suppose a man is caught in a town having intercourse with a young woman who is engaged to someone else. ²⁴ You are to take them outside the town and stone them to death. She is to die because she did not cry out for help, although she was in a town, where she could have been heard. And the man is to die because he had intercourse with someone who was engaged. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²⁵ “Suppose a man out in the countryside rapes a young woman who is engaged to someone else. Then only the man is to be put to death; ²⁶ nothing is to be done to the woman, because she has not committed a sin worthy of death. This case is the same as when one man attacks another man and murders him. ²⁷ The man raped the engaged woman in the countryside, and although she cried for help, there was no one to help her.

^28 (BP)“Suppose a man is caught raping a young woman who is not engaged. ²⁹ He is to pay her father the bride price of fifty pieces of silver, and she is to become his wife, because he forced her to have intercourse with him. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

^30 (BQ)“No man is to disgrace his father by having intercourse with any of his father's wives.

Exclusion from the Lord's People

23 “No man who has been castrated or whose penis has been cut off may be included among the Lord's people.

² “No one born out of wedlock or any descendant of such a person, even in the tenth generation, may be included among the Lord's people.

^3 (BR)“No Ammonite or Moabite—or any of their descendants, even in the tenth generation—may be included among the Lord's people. ^4 (BS)They refused to provide you with food and water when you were on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor, from the city of Pethor in Mesopotamia, to curse you. ^5 (BT)But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead he turned the curse into a blessing, because he loved you. ⁶ As long as you are a nation, never do anything to help these nations or to make them prosperous.

⁷ “Do not despise the Edomites; they are your relatives. And do not despise the Egyptians; you once lived in their land. ⁸ From the third generation onward their descendants may be included among the Lord's people.

Keeping the Military Camp Clean

⁹ “When you are in camp in time of war, you are to avoid anything that would make you ritually unclean. ¹⁰ If a man becomes unclean because he has had a wet dream during the night, he is to go outside the camp and stay there. ¹¹ Toward evening he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may come back into camp.